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USC 85
|Row 3 title = Participants |Row 3 info = 49 |Row 4 title = Debuting countries |Row 4 info = |Row 5 title = Returning countries |Row 5 info = , , , , , , , , , , , |Row 6 title = Withdrawing countries |Row 6 info = , , , , , , , , , , |Row 7 title = Winner |Row 7 info = Elisa "No hero" |Row 8 title = Timeline |Row 8 info = ◄ Dublin 84 San Marino 86 ► }} Universong 85 was the 85th edition of the Universong Contest, held in The Netherlands, and for the second time in its capital, Amsterdam (city that also held USC 26). This was the sixth Dutch Universong staging - and the first since USC 55 held in Den Bosch - made possible after the winning of Within Temptation with the song "Shot in the dark" in the previous edition held in Dublin, Ireland. Debuting in this edition was Egypt, while Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Belgium, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Liechtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania and Slovenia returned, completing thus 49 participant countries. For the very first time, San Marino wins the Universong Contest. Italian singer Elisa, with "No hero" was the responsible for the first Sanmarinese USC title ever. On an exciting voting sequence, Elisa managed herself to be a runaway leader in the latest voting rounds, until getting 210 points. The runners-up were very closed from each other, though far from the winning song. For the third time, Switzerland managed to get a runner-up position in USC, thanks to the song "Movies", by Canadian-born singer Rykka, who collected a total of 186 points; while Norway achieved third place with the song "I don't wanna see you with her" by Maria Mena, collecting a total of 185 points. It's important to remark that both runner-up positions were defined in the very last voting, achieving eventually a 1-point difference between Switzerland and Norway, while the victory of San Marino became evident from early before. Andorra, who was represented by the Spanish singer Pablo López with the song "El mundo" and Georgia, represented by the song "Don't go" by BERA (achieving thus the second best position for Georgia at a country level in Universong) completed the top 5 with 161 and 134 points, respectively. As a curiosity, the participation of both Monaco and Morocco were in danger during the video days, because of different problems. The former was discovered to be a cover song (something that goes against Universong's rules), since its original election, "Je suis un homme" by Maximilien Philippe, was indeed a cover of a song by French singer Zazie. On the other hand, the latter was discovered to be sent in the past; the chosen song was Samira Said's "Mazal", song that already competed in USC 66 in Limassol, Cyprus, getting 19th place with 99 points. As the Universong rules state, after such breach is discovered, the involved player has 24 hours after notice to change their entry. Thus, the new representatives of both Monaco and Morocco - countries competing in the first semifinal - were Yoann Freget with "Ca vient de là-haut" and Saad Lamjarred with "Maalem", respectively. Semifinal 1 The countries from this semifinal plus Ireland must vote here. The other countries can vote, but their votes will be counted as Rest of the World. Host The Netherlands also voted here. Semifinal 2 The countries from this semifinal plus Italy must vote here. The other countries can vote, but their votes will be counted as Rest of the World. Host The Netherlands also voted here. Grand Final Returning artists Special Awards Bartek Award Best Non-English Award hph01 Award Category:Universong Contest